How Belarus's 'aviation piracy' broke international law
France24
25 May 2021, 19:08 GMT+10
Belarus's forced diversion of a plane to arrest dissident journalist Roman Protasevich has prompted outrage. FRANCE 24 looks at precisely how it broke international law and what - if anything - can be done about it.
The forced diversion of a flight between two EU members, Greece and Lithuania, operated by Irish airline Ryanair, provoked fury among Western politicians.
The Republic of Ireland strongly condemned the forced diversion of the flight, with Foreign Minister Simon Coveney telling public broadcaster RTE that "this was effectively aviation piracy, state-sponsored".
Ahead of an EU meeting to discuss Belarus's act later on Monday, Coveney warned that "we cannot allow this incident to pass on the basis of warnings or strong press releases; I think there has to be real edge to the sanctions that are applied on the back of this".